Edward, the Black Prince - Renowned Military Commander Edward, the Black Prince Edward, the Black Prince Renowned Military Commander Image of Edward, the Black Prince from the Bruges Garter Book, c. 1340. Public Domain; courtesy of Wikimedia This profile of Edward, the Black Prince is part of Who's Who in Medieval History Edward, the Black Prince was also known as: Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, Prince d'Aquitaine, Duke of Cornwall, Earl of Chester Edward, the Black Prince was known for: Scoring several notable victories during the Hundred Years' War. He was the eldest son and heir apparent of King Edward III , but he did not live to become king. Occupations: Victorious at Battle of Crécy: Aug. 26 , 1346 Victorious at Battle of Poitiers: Sept. 19 , 1356 Married Joan Plantagenet: Oct.

10 , 1361 Victorious at Battle of Nájera: April 3 , 1367 Died: June 8 , 1376 About Edward, the Black Prince: In 1337, Edward became the first Duke to be created in England when he was given the title Duke of Cornwall. In his first campaign, at the age of 16, he "won his spurs" at the Battle of Crécy in 1346. continue reading below our video What are the Seven Wonders of the World It was at this time that he acquired the mottoes homout; ich dene ("Courage; I serve"), which have been used by the Princes of Wales ever since. Edward became one of the original Knights of the Garter, and was given an independent command of forces in France in 1355. Edward won his most famous victory at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356, where King John II of France was taken captive.

He treated his prisoner with undeniable courtesy, but the king still had to pay a ransom of 3 million gold crowns and negotiate the treaties of Brétigny and Calais, through which Aquitaine became English territory. In 1361 Edward married Joan Plantagenet, "The Fair Maid of Kent," his divorced and widowed cousin. In 1362 he was created Prince of Aquitaine, and in 1363 he left England to take up his duties there. His rule in Aquitaine was a failure for several reasons: as a foreign conqueror, he was too extravagant, and he allowed French loyalties to strengthen; his relationships with the bishops of the area were not good, while some of the nobles of the region were downright hostile; and he levied too many taxes. Edward attempted to restore Peter the Cruel of Castile to his throne, and he won a notable victory at the Battle of Nájera. However, the campaign adversely affected his health, he used up a great deal of his treasury, and he suffered setbacks in Aquitaine as a result.

In 1368, the nobles of Aquitaine appealed against him to King Charles V of France, who informed Edward that he must answer to the appellants before the parlement of Paris. Edward replied that he would appear with 60,000 men at his back. But, in addition to alienating the French nobility, he had also fared poorly with the townspeople and peasantry in Aquitaine, and a revolt ensued that he was unable to put down. He returned to England and in January, 1371, formally surrendered the principality to his father. At home in England, Edward enjoyed a reputation for chivalry and valor, and he spent some time jousting, falconing, and hunting. He was literate, conventionally religious, generous to his friends, and possessed of artistic sensibilities and an appreciation for fine jewels. In the last year of his life, when he knew he was dying, he may have supported the commons in the Good Parliament of April, 1376 in an attempt to secure the succession for his eldest surviving son, Richard . Edward died that June, and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral.

There are no known contemporary records for Edward's sobriquet "Black Prince." It is believed to refer to black armor he may have worn, although another theory attributes it to his dark temper. The first recorded use of the nickname is in the 1568 publication, The Chronicle of England by Richard Grafton. More Edward, the Black Prince Resources: Edward, the Black Prince on the Web Edward, the Black Prince in Print The links below will take you to an online bookstore, where you can find more information about the book to help you get it from your local library. This is provided as a convenience to you; neither Melissa Snell nor About is responsible for any purchases you make through these links. Battle of Creçy Battle of Creçy King Edward III’s crushing English victory over the French; where the Black Prince won his spurs and acquired the emblem of the Three White Feathers.

Battle of Creçy on 26th August 1346 in the Hundred Years War: Froissart’s magnificent representation more imaginative than accurate: click here to buy this picture The previous battle of the Hundred Years War is the Battle of Sluys The next battle of the Hundred Years War is the Battle of Poitiers English knights awaiting the French attack at the Battle of Creçy on 26th August 1346 in the Hundred Years War: click here to buy this picture King Edward III of England victor at the Battle of Creçy on 26th August 1346 in the Hundred Years War Date of the Battle of Creçy: 26th August 1346. Place of the Battle of Creçy: Northern France. Combatants at the Battle of Creçy: An English and Welsh army against an army of French, Bohemians, Flemings, Germans, Savoyards and Luxemburgers. Commanders at the Battle of Creçy: King Edward III with his son, the Black Prince, against Philip VI, King of France.

Size of the armies at the Battle of Creçy: The English army numbered some 4,000 knights and men-at-arms, 7,000 Welsh and English archers and some 5,000 Welsh and Irish spearmen. The English army fielded 5 primitive cannon. Numbers in the French army are uncertain but may have been as high as 80,000 including a force of some 6,000 Genoese crossbowmen. Uniforms, arms and equipment at the Battle of Creçy: The power of the medieval feudal army lay in the charge of its mass of mounted knights. After the impact delivered with the lance, the battle broke into hand to hand combat executed with sword and shield, mace, short spear, dagger and war hammer.

Battle of Creçy on 26th August 1346 in the Hundred Years War: picture by Henri Dupray: click here to buy this picture Depending upon wealth and rank a mounted knight of wore jointed steel armour incorporating back and breast plates, a visored bascinet helmet and steel plated gauntlets with spikes on the back; the legs and feet protected by steel greaves and boots, called jambs. Weapons carried were a lance, shield, sword and dagger. Over the armour a knight wore a jupon or surcoat emblazoned with his arms and an ornate girdle. The French King commanded a force of Genoese crossbowmen, their weapons firing a variety of missiles; iron bolts or stone and lead bullets, to a range of some 200 yards. The crossbow fired with a flat trajectory, its missile capable of penetrating armour. Battle of Creçy on 26th August 1346 in the Hundred Years War The weapon of King Edward’s archers was a six foot yew bow discharging a feathered arrow a cloth metre in length. Arrows were fired with a high trajectory, descending on the approaching foe at an angle.

The rate of fire was up to one arrow every 5 seconds against the crossbow’s rate of a shot every two minutes; the crossbow requiring to be reloaded by means of a winch. For close quarter fighting the archers used hammers or daggers to batter at an adversary’s armour or penetrate between the plates. While a knight was largely protected from an arrow, unless it struck a joint in his armour, his horse was highly vulnerable, particularly in the head, neck or back. The Welsh and Irish infantrymen, carrying spears and knives, made up a disorderly mob of little use during battle, being mainly concerned with ransacking the countryside and murdering the inhabitants or pillaging a battlefield once the combat was over. A knight or man-at-arms, knocked from his horse and pinned beneath its body, would be easily overcome by the swarms of these marauders. The English army possessed simple artillery; improvements in the composition of black powder reducing the size of guns and projectiles and making them sufficiently mobile to be used in the field. It seems that the French had not by the time of Creçy acquired artillery. Winner of the Battle of Creçy: The English army of Edward III won the battle decisively.

Battle of Creçy on 26th August 1346 in the Hundred Years War: map by John Fawkes Account of the Battle of Creçy: Edward III, King of England, began the Hundred Years War, claiming the throne of France on the death of King Philip IV in 1337. The war finally ended in the middle of the 15th Century with the eviction of the English from France, other than Calais, and the formal abandonment by the English monarchs of their claims to French territory. The battlefield of Creçy showing the windmill at which King Edward III positioned himself and the English reserve at the Battle of Creçy on 26th August 1346 in the Hundred Years War On 11th July 1346 Edward III, King of England, with an army of some 16,000 knights, men-at-arms, archers and foot soldiers landed at St Vaast on the peninsular of the Contentin on the north coast of France, intent on attacking Normandy, while a second English army landed in South Western France at Bordeaux to invade the province of Aquitaine.

One of the King’s first actions on landing in France was to knight his 16 year old son Edward, Prince of Wales (known to posterity as the Black Prince). Edward then marched south to Caen, the capital of Normandy, capturing the town and taking prisoner the Constable of France, Raoul, Count of Eu. Marching on to the Seine, the English Army found the bridges across the river destroyed, whilst news came in of an enormous army gathering in Paris under the French King, Philip VI, bent on destroying the invaders. Edward’s army was forced to march up the left bank of the Seine as far as Poissy, approaching perilously close to Paris, before a bridge could be found, damaged but sufficiently repairable to allow the army to cross the river. Once over the Seine Edward marched north for the Channel coast, followed closely by King Philip. Edward III crossing the Somme before the Battle of Creçy on 26th August 1346: picture by Richard Caton Woodville As with the Seine, the English found the River Somme an impassable barrier, the bridges heavily defended or destroyed, forcing them to march down the left bank to the sea.

They finally crossed at the mouth of the river at low tide, just evading the clutches of the pursuing French. Exhausted and soaked Edward’s troops encamped in the Forêt de Creçy on the north bank of the Somme. Edward III crossing the Somme before the Battle of Creçy on 26th August 1346 by Benjamin West On 26th August 1346, in anticipation of the French attack, the English army took up position on a ridge between the villages of Creçy and Wadicourt; the King taking as his post a windmill on the highest point of the ridge. Edward, Prince of Wales, commanded the right division of the English army, assisted by the Earls of Oxford and Warwick and Sir John Chandos. The Prince’s division lay forward of the rest of the army and would take the brunt of the French attack. The left division had as its commander the Earl of Northampton. Each division comprised spearmen in the rear, dismounted knights and men-at-arms in the centre. In a jagged line in the front of the army stood the army’s archers.

Centred on the windmill stood the reserve, directly commanded by the King. Edward the Black Prince at the Battle of Creçy on 26th August 1346 in the Hundred Years War: picture by Walter Stanley Paget click here to buy this picture At the back of the position the army’s baggage formed a park where the horses were held, surrounded by a wall of wagons with a single entrance. Philip’s army came north from Abbeyville, the advance guard arriving before the Creçy-Wadicourt ridge at around midday on 26th August 1346. A party of French knights reconnoitred the English position and advised the King that his army should encamp and give battle the next day when concentrated and fresh. Philip agreed, but it was one thing to make such a decision and quite another to impose it upon the army’s top level of arrogant and independent minded nobles; all jealous of each other and determined to show themselves the champions of France. Most of the army’s leaders were for disposing of the English army without delay, forcing Philip to concede that the attack be made that afternoon.

It was the role of the Constable of France to command the kingdom’s feudal army in battle; but the English had taken the Constable, Raoul, Count of Eu, at Caen. His authority and experience was sorely missed at Creçy, as the King’s officers attempted to control the mass of the army and direct it into the attack. The charge of the French knights at the Battle of Creçy on 26th August 1346 in the Hundred Years War: picture by Harry Payne The Genoese formed the van, commanded by Antonio Doria and Carlo Grimaldi. The Duke D’Alençon led the following division of knights and men-at-arms; among them the blind King John of Bohemia, closely accompanied by two of his knights, their horses strapped on each side of the old monarch’s mount. In D’Alençon’s division rode two more monarchs; the King of the Romans and the displaced King of Majorca. The Duke of Lorraine and the Court of Blois commanded the next division, while King Philip led the rearguard.

The French knights attack at the Battle of Creçy on 26th August 1346 in the Hundred Years War: picture by Richard Caton Woodville: click here to buy this picture At around 4pm the French moved forward for the assault, marching up the track that led to the English position. As they advanced, a sudden rainstorm swirled around the two armies. The English archers removed their bowstrings to cover inside their jackets and hats; the crossbowmen could take no such precautions with their cumbersome weapons. As the French army advanced the chronicler Froissart describes the Genoese as whooping and shouting. Once the English formation was within crossbow range the Genoese discharged their bolts; but the rain had loosened the strings of their weapons and the shots fell short.

Froissart portrayed the response: “The English archers each stepped forth one pace, drew the bowstring to his ear, and let their arrows fly; so wholly and so thick that it seemed as snow.” Blind King John of Bohemia at the Battle of Creçy on 26th August 1346 in the Hundred Years War The barrage inflicted significant casualties on the Genoese and forced them to retreat, exciting the contempt of the French knights coming up behind, who rode them down. The clash of the retreating Genoese against the advancing cavalry threw the French army into confusion. The following divisions of knights and men-at-arms pressed into the melee at the bottom of the slope; but found themselves unable to move forward and subjected to a relentless storm of arrows, making many of the horses casualties. The Black Prince finds the banner of King John of Bohemia after the Battle of Creçy on 26th August 1346 in the Hundred Years War and adopts his badge of the three white feathers, still the emblem of the Prince of Wales: click here to buy this picture At this time a messenger arrived at King Edward’s post by the windmill seeking support for the Black Prince’s division.

Seeing that the French could make little headway up the hill, Edward is reputed to have asked whether his son was dead or wounded and on being reassured said “I am confident he will repel the enemy without my help.” Turning to one of his courtiers the King commented “Let the boy win his spurs.” The French chivalry made repeated attempts to charge up the slope, only to come to grief among the horses and men brought down by the barrage of arrows. King Edward’s five cannon trundled forward and added their fire from the flank of the English position. In the course of the battle John, the blind King of Bohemia, riding at the Black Prince’s position, was struck down with his accompanying knights. The struggle continued far into the night. At around midnight King Philip abandoned the carnage, riding away from the battlefield to the castle of La Boyes. Challenged as to his identity by the sentry on the wall above the closed gate the King called, bitterly, “Voici la fortune de la France” and was admitted. The battle ended soon after the King’s departure, the surviving French knights and men-at-arms fleeing the battlefield. The English army remained in its position for the rest of the night.

In the morning the Welsh and Irish spearmen moved across the battlefield murdering and pillaging the wounded, sparing only those that seemed worth a ransom. King Edward III greeting the Black Prince after the Battle of Creçy on 26th August 1346 in the Hundred Years War: picture by Benjamin West Casualties at the Battle of Creçy: English casualties were trifling, suggesting that few of the French knights reached the English line. French casualties are said to have been 30,000, including the Kings of Bohemia and Majorca, the Duke of Lorraine, the Count of Flanders, the Count of Blois, eight other counts and three archbishops. Follow-up to the Battle of Creçy: Following the battle King Edward III marched his army north to Calais and besieged the town. It took the English a year to take Calais due to its resolute defence. The disaster at Creçy left the French king unable to come to the aid of this important French port.

King Edward III knighting the Black Prince after the Battle of Creçy on 26th August 1346 in the Hundred Years War Anecdotes and traditions from the Battle of Creçy: The Battle of Creçy established the six foot English yew bow as the dominant battlefield weapon of the time. The French army followed the Oriflamme, a sacred banner lodged in times of peace in the church of St Denis to the West of Paris, but brought out in times of war to lead the French into battle. The emblem and motto of King John of Bohemia; blind and elderly at the time of the Battle of Creçy on 26th August 1346 in the Hundred Years War. King John rode into battle flanked by two of his knights his horse strapped to their’s. All the members of the King’s party died in the battle. After the battle, the Black Prince, according to tradition, adopted the emblem of the King of Bohemia, the three white feathers, and his motto “Ich Dien” (I serve); still the emblem of the Prince of Wales.

Stone cannon balls were found on the battlefield in 1850 confirming the use by the English of the 5 pieces of artillery in the battle. The French went into battle with the cry “God and St Denis”. The English battle cry was “God and St George.” The English took 80 French standards in the battle. On the following day the display of standards was taken by the French country folk as indicating that the French army had prevailed. They gathered at Creçy only to be pillaged and murdered by Edward’s foot soldiers. Raoul, Count of Eu, the Constable of France, spent several years in captivity in England. During that time he took an enthusiastic part in the festivities at court, particularly the jousting. Word got back to the French king. On his return Raoul was tried for treason and beheaded. King Edward III greets the Black Prince after the Battle of Creçy on 26th August 1346 in the Hundred Years War: click here to buy this picture References for the Battle of Creçy: The Hundred Years War by Robin Neillands. British Battles by Grant.

The previous battle of the Hundred Years War is the Battle of Sluys The next battle of the Hundred Years War is the Battle of Poitiers Part II – Battle of Crécy: “Let the Boy Win His Spurs” | The American Legion's BurnPit Part II – Battle of Crécy: “Let the Boy Win His Spurs” August 26th, 2010 by Siggurdsson Today in Military History: August 26, 1346 Dispositions of the Armies For his confrontation with King Philip and his army, Edward chose a mostly flat, agricultural plain, with a slight ridge that stretched between the towns of Crécy and Wadicourt, a distance of about a mile-and-a quarter. [Crécy was a junction of about seven roads, not unlike the town of Gettysburg 500 years later.] His left flank was anchored on the town of Wadicourt, while his right flank was protected by the sprawling Forest of Crécy and a stream named Maye. Edward’s army commanded a downward slope facing southeast.

Edward divided his army – now reduced to about 11,000 to 12,000 men – into three parts, or “battles” (a common expression of the time, meaning simply a division of troops). The right battle consisted of about 1000 dismounted men-at-arms and spearmen, with 2000 longbowmen arrayed on either side of the footmen. This group of soldiers was commanded by Edward the Prince of Wales, the king’s 16 year old son and heir. The teenager later received the nom de guerre of “The Black Prince” from his black-enameled plate armor, one source stating it was a gift of his father. [The nickname, first seen in the 16th century, also seemingly comes from his use of black in heraldic devices, though some claim it resulted from his foul temper.] Prince Edward also received considerable help from experienced warriors like the Earls of Warrick and Oxford, Sir John Chandos and many others.

The left battle, commanded by the William de Bohun, 1st Earl of Northampton, had 600 men-at-arms and footmen flanked on each side by about 1200 archers. Finally, a reserve of about 1000 men-at-arms and spearmen as well as 2000 longbowmen stood behind the two forward battles, just below the ridge. King Edward himself commanded the reserve, using a windmill on the ridge as a forward command post. The main English camp was just to the rear of the ridge in thick woods. In addition, to the east of these woods, Edward ordered his wagons to be arranged into a large makeshift fortification, where all the horses and baggage were placed. [One historian claims this wagon-fort was used to guard the English rear from a surprise French attack.] In addition, there is evidence to suggest the English dug a succession of pits and ditches on the fields in front of their slope, to disrupt and slow the French horsemen. Another source states the English employed caltrops to lame the French horses. After arranging his men, King Edward joked with his commanders that his desire for a fight was now justified.

He also ordered his men to rest for the coming fight. The men began to sharpen their weapons, feast, repair their armor and sleep. Many men heard Mass prior to battle. As reports of the approaching French came to him on the morning of August 26, the English monarch ordered his army into three defensive lines. He then exhorted his men, telling them to put their faith in “God and the blessed Virgin.” Edward further instructed them to concentrate on the French cavalry, and not to break ranks to loot the enemy dead and wounded, as it would weaken the English line and “the battle might be lost.” On the French side, Philip VI commanded a force considerably larger than his opponent. The numbers have been given to be as many as 100,000 by various contemporary chroniclers, with modern scholars giving estimates of 35,000 to 60,000. At least a third of his army was heavy mounted knights and their retainers, the pride of French chivalry.

The remainder was infantrymen, and included a contingent of Italian crossbowmen (the sources, as usual, disagree on the exact number, but I think between 6000 and 8000 is a good number). Philip’s army arrived on the battlefield piecemeal throughout the day, with little real cohesion at all. The king met with his commanders, seeking their counsel. They advised him to make camp, consolidate his forces, and prepare to do battle the next day. However, most of the French nobles were more concerned with covering themselves in glory and choosing the best English prisoners to hold for ransom. Many of the knights wanted the fighting to start right then and there. Nearly all the histories of this fight comment on the excessive pride of the French nobility, which led to their downfall. The French forces which had arrived earlier had already halted their advance, but later-arriving contingents were convinced they would be late for battle and continued to move toward the English line. In addition, the local peasantry was furiously calling for vengeance on the English for their depredation of the past few days. Faced with these calls for action, King Philip ordered his army into position.

It was about 4:00 in the afternoon. Over the next two hours, the French army tried to sort itself out. The foreign crossbowmen went to the front, hoping that their fire would be sufficient to soften the enemy line to receive the attack of the heavy cavalry. Somewhere between four and nine lines of French horsemen were arrayed in the fields before the English-held ridge. [The various chronicles mention a large number of French infantrymen, but they apparently were initially held out of the battle, in order to give the nobility some glory.] King Philip placed himself in the rear of his army, then ordered the unfurling of the oriflamme, the French national battle standard. When the oriflamme was displayed, it meant that no quarter would be given to the enemy. At about 6:00 pm, a brief but heavy thunderstorm struck, drenching the fields between the two armies and creating a muddy bog. [According to several sources, it was the first rain in six weeks.] In addition, the rain loosened the bowstrings of the Italian crossbows, which would have a deleterious effect on their performance in the coming battle.

The English archers, when it started to rain, simply removed their bowstrings and placed them under their caps to keep them dry. After the storm ceased, the sun returned in all its brilliance. It was now about 6:30 pm, and the sun was low in the western sky, at the backs of the English and in the eyes of the French. The Battle As sunset approached, King Philip ordered his first line to attack. The French army had a large number of trumpeters and drummers, who raised a cacophony of music, hoping to unnerve the English. The English answered with noisemakers of their own: five primitive cannon, large unwieldy devices that lacked wheels and had to be carried from place to place, probably via wagon. Variously described as firing stone balls, large arrows or primitive grapeshot, their first targets were the Italian mercenary crossbowmen. The Italians loosed a volley of quarrels at the English, and did little if any damage. The mercenaries had misjudged the distance, and most of their missiles fell short. Furthermore, many of the bowstrings of the crossbows were useless from the previous rain.

[The commander of the crossbowmen had complained prior to the conflict about his troops having to go directly into battle after marching 12 miles that day. A French nobleman heard his complaint, then replied, “This is what one gets by employing such scoundrels, who fail when there is any need for them."] Seeing the failure of the crossbowmen, the English archers replied in kind. French chronicler Jean Froissart describes the volleys of English arrows falling among the Italians “like snow.” After the first two or three volleys of clothyard shafts, large gaps began to appear in the ranks of the crossbowmen. Their losses might have been lessened, had not their pavises – large man-high wooden shields designed to protect the crossbowmen during the long reloading process – been left at the rear in the French baggage train. After absorbing several volleys from the English line, and being unable to advance closer, the crossbowmen threw their now-useless weapons aside, turned and ran. At the sight of such behavior, the first line of French cavalry advanced through them, some accounts saying the Italians were ridden down and slain, either on order of King Philip or by over-eager French nobles.

Their charge disrupted by their own crossbowmen, the French heavy cavalry charged forward, hoping to come to grips with the smaller English army. The heavily armored nobles shouted their battlecry, “God and St. Denis!” The English longbows continued their deadly harvest, one chronicler saying the first attack line of 2000 men was “entirely destroyed.” The next few hours are a whirl of chaos, with longbowmen continually firing their weapons, the French horses being wounded and killed by the deadly missiles. Yet some groups of French knights and their retainers managed to reach the English line, but there was no coordination to their attacks. One English chronicler, Geoffrey le Baker, stated, “When fighting with the English men-at-arms, the French were beaten down by axes, lances and swords. And in the middle of the army, many French soldiers were crushed to death by the weight of numbers without being wounded.” As many as 15 separate charges were directed at the English line, and all were turned back. One of the most famous incidents of Crécy concerns King John of Bohemia, oldest son of the Holy Roman Emperor and vassal of Philip VI (as the Duke of Luxembourg).

He was 50 years old at this battle and had been blind for over a decade from ophthalmia (an inflammation of the eyes). Perhaps sensing this would be his final battle, he appealed to his noble followers, saying (according to Froissart): “Sirs, ye are my men, my companions and friends in this journey: I require you bring me so far forward, that I may strike one blow with my sword.” They said they would do his commandment, and to the intent that they should not lose him in the press, they tied all their reins of their bridles each to other and set the king before to accomplish his desire, and so they went on their enemies… [King John] was so far forward that he [struck] a stroke with his sword, yea and more than four, and fought valiantly and so did his company; and they adventured themselves so forward, that they were there all slain, and the next day they were found in the place about the king, and all their horses tied each to other. King John’s bravery was directed at the section of the English line commanded by the Black Prince. The old monarch’s bravery impressed the teenaged prince immensely.

At one point in the fight, which went long after sundown, the English right wing was under severe pressure. King Edward’s commanders advised that reinforcements be sent to assist the young prince. The English monarch demurred, saying, “Let the boy win his spurs,” an oblique way of saying, “Let’s see how the boy responds to pressure.” After absorbing the multiple charges of the French cavalry, the English line still stood. The French king then began throwing his infantry up the slope. This was probably some of the worst fighting of the day, with hundreds of dead and wounded horses and their riders littering the muddy fields. Philip, despite initially placing himself in the rear, eventually moved forward to engage the enemy. Various histories state the French monarch had two horse killed under him. After mounting his third horse, close to midnight, Philip decided that he had had enough. He gathered his personal retainers and fled the field. At that point, the majority of the French army broke and ran as well. The English position stood firm, as the battle of Crecy ended, after fighting that lasted for nearly five hours. Aftermath The English army, exhausted from the heavy fighting, did not pursue the French.

The tired victors slept in their positions that night, though some footmen slipped among the piles of dead and wounded. These men began looting the bodies, killing any Frenchmen found to still be alive. [This act would later be condemned as a direct violation of the chivalric ideal.] The next morning, the English were confronted by a small force of new French troops (one chronicler claims they were 3000 cavalry and 4000 infantry) who had apparently journeyed far and had not heard new of the defeat the previous night. The English made short work of the newcomers, apparently attacking and routing them with little trouble. Total casualties for the French amounted to 1542 knights, 2300 Italian crossbowmen and about 10,000 infantry. Among the French nobility killed were: King John of Bohemia; Duke Rudolph of Lorraine; Count Charles of Alençon; Count Louis of Flanders; Louis of Châtillon the Count of Blois; the Viscount Rohan; the Lord of Dinan; the Lord of Laval; the Lord of Chateaubriant; and the Lord of Redon.

The French also lost 80 battle standards, captured by the English. English losses are reckoned at two knights killed and several hundred infantrymen slain. Few battles of the medieval period were so hard-fought, yet so lopsided. Footnote #1: King John of Bohemia and his entire group of retainers were found on the field, dead to a man. To honor the brave monarch, the Black Prince Edward took the king’s coat-of-arms and motto and made it his own. [“Ich Dien” means “I serve.”] In addition, King Edward had John’s body washed, properly wrapped, and placed on a wagon to be taken back to Germany. The king and his nobles, with the bishop of Durham presiding, also celebrated the office of the dead over the noble corpse. Footnote #2: After celebrating a victory mass on the morning of August 27, King Edward directed that the battlefield be scoured for loot or captives. Many mortally wounded French knights were summarily dispatched, as they likely would not survive to provide ransoms. After consigning the dead to large mass burial pits, the English army moved north to besiege the city of Calais.

Footnote #3: Raoul, Count of Eu, the Constable of France, spent several years in captivity in England. During that time he took an enthusiastic part in the festivities at court, particularly the jousting. Word of his activities reached the French king. On his return Raoul was tried for treason and beheaded. Footnote #4: Edward III would rule England until his death in 1377. His 50-year reign was not surpassed until George III in the nineteenth century. Footnote #5: One of the best historical/fictional accounts of this battle is contained in Bernard Cornwell’s 2000 novel “The Archer’s Tale” (British title “Harlequin”). Footnote #6: As with most battles which occurred in this particular time period, I must again admit a large debt of informational gratitude to the 1996 book “Infantry Warfare in the Early Fourteenth Century: Discipline, Tactics and Technology” by Kelly DeVries.

Battlefield today Posted in Uncategorized, top stories | 1 comment The Hundred Years' War Battle of Crecy 20,000-80,000 men Battle of Crécy Overview: Seeking to invade France in 1346, King Edward III landed in Normandy that July. Quickly capturing Caen on July 26, Edward moved east towards the Seine. Alerted that King Philip VI was assembling a large army in Paris, Edward turned north and began moving along the coast. Pressing on, he crossed the Somme after winning the Battle of Blanchetaque on August 24. Tired from their endeavors, the English army encamped near the Forest of Crécy. Eager to defeat the English and angry that he had failed to trap them between the Seine and Somme, Philip raced towards Crécy with his men. Alerted to the approach of the French army, Edward deployed his men along a ridge between the villages of Crécy and Wadicourt. Dividing his army, Edward assigned command of the right division to his sixteen-year old son Edward, the Black Prince with assistance from the Earls of Oxford and Warwick, as well as Sir John Chandos.

The left division was led by the Earl of Northampton, while Edward, commanding from a vantage point in a windmill, retained leadership of the reserve. These divisions were supported by large numbers of archers equipped with the English longbow . While waiting for the French to arrive, the English busied themselves by digging ditches and laying out caltrops in front of their position. Advancing north from Abbeyville, the lead elements of Philip's army arrived near the English lines around mid-day on August 26. Scouting the enemy position, they recommended to Philip that they encamp, rest, and wait for the entire army to arrive. While Philip agreed with this approach, he was overruled by his nobles who wished to attack the English without delay. Quickly forming for battle, the French did not wait for the bulk of their infantry or supply train to arrive. Advancing with Antonio Doria and Carlo Grimaldi's Genoese crossbowmen in the lead, the French knights followed with lines led by the Duke D’Alencon, Duke of Lorraine, and Count of Blois, while Philip commanded the rearguard. Moving to the attack, the crossbowmen fired a series of volleys at the English.

These proved ineffective as a brief thunderstorm before the battle had wet and slackened the crossbowstrings. The English archers on the other hand had simply untied their bowstrings during the storm. This coupled with the longbow's ability to fire every five seconds gave the English archers a dramatic advantage over the crossbowmen who could only get off one to two shots per minute. The Genoese position was worsened by the fact that in the rush to battle their pervises (shields to hide behind while reloading) had not been brought forward. Coming under devastating fire from Edward's archers, the Genoese began withdrawing. Angered by the crossbowmen's retreat, the French knights fired insults at them and even cut several down. Charging forward, the French front lines fell into confusion as they collided with the retreating Genoese. As the two bodies of men tried to move past each other they came under fire from the English archers and five early cannon (some sources debate their presence). Continuing the attack, the French knights were forced to negotiate the slope of the ridge and the man-made obstacles. Cut down in large numbers by the archers, the felled knights and their horses blocked the advance of those to the rear.

During this time, Edward received a message from his son requesting aid. Upon learning that the younger Edward was healthy, the king refused stating "“I am confident he will repel the enemy without my help," and "Let the boy win his spurs." As evening approached the English line held, repelling sixteen French charges. Each time, the English archers brought down the attacking knights. With darkness falling, a wounded Philip, recognizing he had been defeated, ordered a retreat and fell back to the castle at La Boyes. Aftermath: The Battle of Crécy was one of the greatest English victories of the Hundred Years' War and established the superiority of the longbow against mounted knights. In the fighting, Edward lost between 100-300 killed, while Philip suffered around 13,000-14,000 (some sources indicate it may have been as high as 30,000). Among the French losses were the heart of the nation's nobility including the Duke of Lorraine, Count of Blois, and the Count of Flanders, as well as John, King of Bohemia and the King of Majorca. In addition eight other counts and three archbishops were slain.

In the wake of the battle, the Black Prince paid tribute to the nearly blind King John of Bohemia, who had fought valiantly before being slain, by taking his shield and making it his own. Having "earned his spurs," the Black Prince became one of his father's best field commanders and won a stunning victory at Poitiers in 1356. Following the victory at Crécy, Edward continued north and laid siege to Calais. The city fell the next year and became a key English base for the remainder of the conflict. Selected Sources The Battle of Poitiers: 1356 The Battle of Poitiers: 1356 By Robert Wilde Updated November 06, 2015. At Poitiers, on September 19th 1356, a teenage prince from England led his forces against a larger French army and won the second great English victory of the Hundred Years War . He even captured the French king, and allowed negotiations to begin over a possible ending. That the chance would be squandered was also partly the prince’s fault.

Background Tensions between the monarchs of England and France had been great since 1066, when a notional French vassal, the Duke of Normandy, had conquered himself a rival kingdom: England. There had been plenty of wars between the two monarchs over the rights and holdings of the ‘English’ in France, but as the countries slid once more towards war in the 1330s King Edward III of England changed the situation and triggered a long lasting conflict: he claimed the throne of France, as he arguably had the right to do. Edward had led early campaigns in France, winning a famous battle at Crécy , and it was here where his eldest son, Edward the Black Prince, ‘won his spurs’. continue reading below our video 10 Facts About the Titanic That You Don't Know Build to Poitiers Prince Edward led his own attack into France, using Aquitaine as a base and beginning to raid and slaughter in August 1356. He went north, to both assist existing English holdings and further damage those loyal to the French, and then laid siege to Tours with six thousand men.

Meanwhile King John II of France moved his army away from Normandy (where he was tackling another English army sent by Edward as a distraction) and towards the city. Edward got word of this, realised he was outnumbered, and began moving to Bordeaux and a safe base. However, John’s angle allowed him to get in front of Edward with eleven thousand men, and on September 18th 1356 the prince was forced to stop, but he did so on a strong defensive position; negotiations took place during the night, but neither side conceded enough and on the 19th he gave battle at Poitiers. The Battle of Poitiers The English divided into three ‘divisions’, led by Edward and the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick, with archers on the flanks. The prince would be in the centre, with a reserve of his best cavalry and a quarter of his archers, and the line of his troops would be between a marsh and a makeshift barricade make of wagons, behind a hedge. The position was so tricky for the proposed French advance that one commander even suggested they lay a siege to the English rather than attack.

The French were mostly dismounted to better deal with the advance, and the remaining cavalry was in front. Then there were three parallel lines / battles, with the Dauphin, the Duke of Orléans, and then the king in charge. The French may have had 12-16,000 and the English 6-8000 men. Baron Clermont led the first battle, the knights, in an attack on the English flanks after they began to move, perhaps retreating, where their advance was ravaged by longbow fire and funnelled to disrupt their power, and they failed to break the English. The Dauphin attacked next with his battle, and although also damaged by arrows they reached the English foot soldiers intact and commenced a couple of hours of fierce fighting. However, as this battle finally retreated – and with the exhausted Dauphin helped from the field – something remarkable happened: the Duke of Orleans’ ordered his force to retreat too. No one really knows why he marched them off, but it’s likely he saw the Dauphin retreat and thought a general retreat had been ordered. Suddenly the English thought they had only one battle left to face.

The French, however, were not defeated yet and King John led his battle forward; the English had run out of arrows and were fighting with swords, and the two sides met. At this point the English cavalry and archers held in reserve managed to sneak round and hit the rear of the French king’s forces, followed by a charge from the front, breaking them, and as they fled John was captured and sent to Edward. The battle was now won by the English, and The Black Prince escorted John to captivity in England, where the former was welcomed as a hero. English losses had been far smaller than French ones, and the ransoms of many high ranking Frenchmen would be coming. Of course, the ransom for a king would be huge and the English duly demanded such. It was a famous victory, but the war was far from being over. Healing Philosophy: The Black Prince The Black Prince Healinks Where did all the links go? Here . Why? What is Healinks? Healinks is the links page of Healing Philosophy where you will find links to the best philosophy on the web. Go to Healinks The Black Prince As I crossed the street from Leeds Station my eye fell on a striking equestrian statue some distance on the left.

I went over to have a look at it. Now I must have crossed that street a dozen times in all my trips to England but never once did I seem to notice this statue, an amazing lack of observation on my part that I cannot explain. It was a statue of the Black Prince, no less. The Black Prince was the son of Edward III, the victor of the Battle of Crécy, where a small English army destroyed a large French one by the use of the medieval equivalent of the tactical nuclear weapon: the longbow. The prince ‘won his spurs’ (became a knight) at the age of 16 at that battle. There is a passage in Froissart that tells us something about the way the prince won his spurs and the sang froid and hard love of Edward III. In the morning, the day of the battle, certain Frenchmen and Germans perforce broke through the archers of the prince’s battalion, and came and fought with the men-of-arms hand to hand.

Then the second battalion of the Englishmen came to succour the prince’s battalion, the which was time, for they had then much ado; and those with the prince sent a messenger to the king, who was on the little windmill hill.

Then the knight said to the king, “Sir, the Earl of Warwick and the Earl of Stafford, Sir Reginald Cobham, and other such as be about the prince your son, are fiercely fought withal, and are sore handled: wherefore they desire you that you and your battalion will come and aid them, for if the Frenchmen increase, as they doubt they will, your son and they shall have much ado.” Then the king said, “Is my son dead, or hurt, or on the earth felled?” “No, Sir,” said the knight, “but he is hardly matched; wherefore he hath need of your aid.” “Well,” said the king, “return to him and to them that sent you hither, and say to them that they send no more to me, whatever adventure befalleth, as long as my son is alive; and also say to them, that they suffer him this day to win his spurs, for if God be pleased, I will that this day’s work be his, and the honour thereof, and to them that be about him.” Then the knight returned again to them, and showed the king’s words, the which greatly encouraged them; and they repented in that they had

 sent to the king as they did.

Thus the Black Prince won his spurs that day and went on to defeat the French himself at the Battle at Poitiers, fulfilling all his father’s hopes for him. And such was Edward III in a time when a good king could bring glory and prosperity to his people and a bad king utter ruin. Soon the powers of kings would be curtailed by parliament, which is in effect an insurance policy against the consequences of having a bad king. Looking at the economic mess we are in today, some might prefer taking their chances with a king. The Black Prince is buried in Canterbury Cathedral and what seems to be (I have not been there) a magnificent gilded copper effigy rests above his tomb, portraying the prince as the epitome of the chivalric knight.

David Green (in his book The Black Prince) notes that the tomb undoubtedly retained an aura many years after the prince’s death, for Shakespeare/De Vere has the archbishop of Canterbury say to Henry V: Look back into your mighty ancestors: Go, my dread lord, to your great-grandsire’s tomb, From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit, And your great-uncle’s, Edward the Black Prince, Who on the French ground play’d a tragedy, Making defeat on the full power of France, While his most mighty father on a hill Stood smiling to behold his lion’s whelp Forage in blood of French nobility. Photo of tomb effigy from Wikimedia

Question: In which battle did Edward the Black Prince 'win his spurs'?
Answer: Crecy